Gerardo Bedoya Borrero

El País

March 20, 1997, in Cali, Colombia

Bedoya, opinion editor of the Cali daily newspaper El País and a harsh critic of drug trafficking, was assassinated as he was getting into his car by a gunman who shot him repeatedly and fled the scene on a motorcycle. Colleagues said in a public statement that they believed that drug traffickers perpetrated the crime. Three weeks before his death, Bedoya had written a column defending the controversial U.S. decision to decertify Colombia as a recipient of U.S. economic aid because of its government's alleged ties to cocaine cartels. "Even though they call me pro-Yankee, I prefer the pressure of the U.S. government to the pressure of the narcos," he wrote.